Recently, according to the improvement of natural language processing technique, many kinds of machine translation software to translate documents in a language into another language are developed and utilized.
A machine translation apparatus to which this software is installed is provided. As to the machine translation apparatus, translation is executed by using large scale dictionary data including a technical term dictionary. The large scale dictionary data give a suitable translation for many terms/compounds included in source sentences. Then, uniformity of translated terms in all of a translated document is guaranteed.
Furthermore, as to the machine translation apparatus, except for the technical term dictionary, a user dictionary for a user to register (the user's desired) translated terms can be prepared. The user dictionary is used for correctly translating terms not registered in a system dictionary. In this case, the system dictionary often registers technical terms and translated terms thereof.
On the other hand, in order to cover non-fluency of translated sentences by the machine translation software, a translation system using a translation memory can be utilized. The translation memory is used for translating by unit of one sentence (desirably decided by the user or the system). For example, in a thesis reported by a society or in a specification for patent application, a sentence frequently included therein and a translated sentence thereof are previously registered as a pair of a source sentence and a target sentence. By referring to the translation memory, even if a source sentence includes many technical expressions, a natural translated sentence (target sentence) corresponding to the source sentence can be output at one time. In general, machine translation software including the translation memory that previously registers tens of thousands of target sentences is sold.
However, the technical term dictionary and the user dictionary (Hereinafter, they are called “a technical term dictionary”), and the translation memory, are independently developed. Accordingly, between the technical term dictionary and the translation memory, inconsistent translated terms often exist.
For example, as shown in FIG. 22A, in a technical term dictionary of a translation apparatus for translating Japanese into English, a translated term “speech recognition equipment” corresponding to a Japanese term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI” is registered. As a result, by using this technical term dictionary, when a term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI” is included in a Japanese sentence to be translated, this term is translated into “speech recognition equipment”.
Furthermore, in a translation memory of the same translation apparatus, as shown in FIG. 22B, a pair of a source sentence J1 and a target sentence E1 is registered. By using this translation memory, when a Japanese sentence to be translated matches with the source sentence J1, the target sentence E1 is output. However, as to a term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI” in the source sentence J1, the target sentence E1 includes a translated term “voice recognizing unit”.
When translation is executed by using both the technical term dictionary and the translation memory, as to a Japanese sentence matched with the source sentence J1, the translation memory is referred. As a result, as to Japanese term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI”, a translated term “voice recognizing unit” is output. Furthermore, in Japanese another sentence not matched with the source sentence J1, as to a term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI” included therein, the technical term dictionary is referred. As a result, as to Japanese term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI”, the translated term “speech recognition equipment” is output. Accordingly, as to the same term “ONSEI-NINSHIKI-SOUCHI” included in one document, two translated terms “speech recognition equipment” and “voice recognizing unit” are output. As a result, uniformity of translated terms as a characteristic of the machine translation apparatus is lost.